Because of magnetic and electric coupling between two neighboring contact pairs, a contact pair induces a current in neighboring contact pairs and influences electric charges, thus producing crosstalk.
Several approaches to a solution are conceivable in principle for the purpose of reducing crosstalk. Thus, for example, the individual contact pairs can be shielded from one another. A disadvantage of this solution is the increased outlay on production and the costs associated therewith. Another possibility consists in arranging the contact pairs at a large spacing from one another and simultaneously choosing the spacing between the contacts of a pair to be very small, since the absolute values of the field strengths decrease with increasing spacing. Such arrangements have the disadvantage that they are very voluminous and run counter to requirements for a compact design. It is also known to compensate for existing crosstalk, but this is very complicated technically and subject to physical constraints.
A further possibility is to arrange the contact pairs in such a way that crosstalk is reduced because of the field conditions. It has been proposed for this purpose to arrange the contact pairs of twin conductors relative to one another in such a way that the areas defined by the contact pairs of a respective twin conductor are perpendicular to one another. If, in this case, certain symmetry conditions are observed by the field distribution, a contact pair can be arranged on the electric equipotential surfaces of its neighboring contact pair, with the result that the contact pairs are decoupled electrically and magnetically. The contact pairs can be arranged in this case such that the areas defined by the contact pairs intersect. The effect of this is that the conductors are mutually interleaved in the region of connection to the transmission lines, which causes additional crosstalk. Consequently, arrangements are preferred in which the defined areas of the contact pairs do not intersect. The large space requirement and changing connecting planes are a disadvantage of the known arrangements with non- intersecting areas. Problems due to crosstalk which are similar in principle also occur in the case of multicore cables.